Tag: joy

“A Day Wasted on Others is not Wasted on Oneself” –Charles Dickens #empathy #globalmindset

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections8 Comments
Image by rony michaud from Pixabay

I am struggling with people who are choosing to thrive in a state of self proclaimed joy. Please allow me to explain why. I have nothing against joy, in fact, joy is the state of being that deserves to be grown and nurtured. But here is the caveat: I don’t believe joy can exist in singularity. I believe joy is meant to be shared. And when joy singularly exists in a bubble of protection against the suffering around us, it is by definition a selfish state of being.

In the mystery schools we are taught that each individual is an aspect of the whole. That we come from a place of unity to understand division before we return again to the state of unity. This concept threads through ancient philosophy and spiritual texts. It breaks down the laws of hierarchy and the problematic separatist notions of “other” to remind us that at our essence we are more alike than we are different. Each body is created from the same basic components. Each soul arises from the same source.

There are many people in the diverse body of spiritual fields who have chosen to elevate themselves beyond unity consciousness for personal protection and/or gain. Consider the hierarchical structure of organized religion. Consider the spiritual “teacher” who chooses to place the self above the student. Consider also those who choose to bypass global trauma and suffering so that they can reside in their bubbles of “joy.”

Yesterday, I found myself in a state of agitation when talking with one of those people. She is a good friend of mine. She is a good person, in essence, yet she has chosen to distance herself from the suffering of others so that she can focus on growing her own abundance and joy. She is okay with this, but I am not. Maybe I should be, but I’m not.

As I stated at that beginning of this post, I am not opposed to personal joy. In fact, I believe it is each of our birthrights. But to exist in a state of joy when those around you are suffering not only places you in a state of chosen immunity, it negates the law of unity. It creates a chosen system of hierarchy and otherness that is not sustainable for the wellbeing of all.

Can we truly thrive when others are suffering? In order to sustain her bubble of joy, my friend has chosen to stay uniformed about current events. She has chosen to cut herself off from the crises occurring elsewhere because for now she is in a place of safety and security. There is a popular belief based on the “law of attraction” that what we choose to create becomes our reality. Many people interpret this law in a self-focused manner, believing that individually we create our own reality. Reality, though, is a process of co-creation.

Self-imposed immunity is not sustainable. Eventually the bubble of self-created joy begins to dissolve. Those of us existing in this privileged state (for it is a privileged state that is simply not attainable for those subjected to discrimination) will eventually find ourselves affected by the suffering around us. Complete isolation is not sustainable in a global community. Eventually the effects of trying to exist in a state of separation catch up with us. We may discover that we have been unintentionally harming our children, and thus ourselves. We may discover that we can no longer afford luxuries because those who provide them for us can no longer do so. And, eventually we may find that there is no longer anyone around to elevate us into a place of “joy” because of dissolution of our followers through disillusion.

We must not forget that a singular life is only possible because of the lives that exists around it in support. Therefore, joy, by definition, is not meant to be harbored by one, but to be spread through all.

Reflecting upon the joys of a life as it turns towards fifty #turningfifty #midlife #halfcentury #definingjoy

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections23 Comments
The joy of the setting sun, which never really sets

Joy: to experience great pleasure or delight  — Merriam-Webster

As life moves me towards the age of fifty, I find myself reflecting on how I define joy. We often ask each other, “Did you enjoy this?” and “Are you enjoying that?” without perhaps thinking about what these questions mean to us individually.

Merriam-Webster goes on to define joy in three ways. There is an outward expression of joy that arises out of “good-fortune or success,” and there is that more inward state of being that is equated to “bliss.” In the middle is “happiness.”

I have found that as I reach into the arms of life at fifty, none of these definitions of joy quite work for me. Instead, see the moments of life that open me.

Let me try to explain.

A few nights ago, I had a dream: I was sitting with a new teacher, and we were reviewing my life resume. “Well,” she said, “you didn’t finish your PhD, but you wrote this book, and then this book, and then this book…”

You might think, after reading this, that I am about to define the joy I have discovered in my life by the definition of “good-fortune or success,” but I am not.

If I did, I would count reviews and book sales and find lack. I would turn towards an outward refection of success and find how unsettling this constant climb really is.

No, joy has found me in more subtle, but meaningful ways. For me, fifty years of joy have given me moments like this:

I am seven months pregnant, dancing in the living room with my child in my belly. Just the two of us. Complete union. Joy.

I am sitting on the sofa, looking into my teenager’s eyes filled with the sorrow of heartache. It is the middle of the day, but it is also morning. It is also night. The days turn into weeks, and we are brought together, again and again to experience this part of life. Distilled moments of union, communing in raw openness. Also joy.

I am standing in the moors of England, my hand pressed against an ancient stone. The wind fights my hair and tears run with sorrow down my cheeks, but I am hardly aware of myself. Instead, I am experiencing life beyond me. Memories of lives in all their extremes move through me in waves of connection, slipping through time and space. It is happiness, and sorrow, and everything in between. The joy of openness, which is connection.

I am sitting at an old, antique desk I found years ago with my husband on Craig’s List in our hunt to build my dream. It is at the end of a small alcove, my office. The walls around me are a soft purple hung with gifts of friendship and love. I am writing words to fill the pages of my fourth book. In this moment, I don’t care about how many eyes will read them, I am filled with the harmony of the flow of life that ebbs and rushes. I am an active part of creation in a sacred space. Joy.

I am standing still in the forest with my beloved dog beside me while nature moves around us. I can hear the song of birds and the wind moving through the trees. I can feel the light that is outside of me, inside of me. I am still, but I am moving. I am the energy that is my life as a part of all life. A temporary form, constantly changing as it sheds and grows. Releases and renews. Life recycling and living, over and over again. Unity without ending: the joy of being. The light of life = delight.

Someone I care deeply about has recently died. She was a friend, a mentor, a mother figure and a kindred spirit all wrapped into one human form. Her loss was not sudden, but too soon. I am grieving in uncharted territory while reading a blog post she wrote before her passing. Her presence is alive within her words, and I watch as the light on my screen fades and dims, then brightens again, seemingly of its own accord. She is the “light behind the story.” The light that never fades, which is the pure joy of life.

I am sitting inside a home infused with love in all its forms. The walls hold the laughter of joy and the shrieks of sorrow, and everything in between. Outside, nature breathes through the windows a constant promise of renewal. I sit amidst life, writing, but also participating. I am the witness and the participant. I am a part of all that is and ever will be. I am the joy of being.

And it is always enough

Entering bliss through the heart

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Dreams, Energy Healing, Gaia & Elementals, Memoir8 Comments

It’s the only way, really. Isn’t it? To enter bliss through the heart. Yet, we try so many other ways. I am thinking of the energy of the second chakra in particular. That womb of creation where energy stirs in fiery red/orange when truly ignited by love. I am thinking about Kimberly Harding of Soul Healing Art (check it out, she has wonderful posts) who often writes and paints about this chakra. And, I am thinking about the many messengers Spirit has sent me over the past week.

Yesterday, there was the hummingbird, a messenger of joy, soundlessly flying her green-gold glory into my gardens to penetrate and retrieve the sweet elixir of life from the open, red flowers of bee balm.

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One may think of sex, in the many ways the womb of creation, with its feminine energy is penetrated by the masculine energy of activation. Sometimes, fertilization occurs and something quite wonderful and new is born. There is the energy that is created when the masculine and feminine energies peak into climatic joy, and truly merge and join in a harmonic frequency of bliss.

And, one can think of the hummingbird, and how penetration of joy need not be overtly masculine and never needs to be aggressive. In fact, it’s the aggression, the over-use of male energy that creates a damping and compression of the feminine fire. Look at that hummingbird making love to the bee balm. The image is beautiful and soft. The bird knows only joy and light, for it is her purpose.

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There is nothing aggressive, nothing forced about her light-body as it silently hums over the flower. The hummingbird, with her green-gold feathers, lives through the heart, the divine path to joy and the opening of creative fire.

Two days before I saw the hummingbird, I found myself creating a circle of green stones around an orange stone. The green stones resonated with the heart chakra, the orange, the sacral, or second chakra. I was, I realized, activating the sacral chakra through the heart, in preparation for an energy healing session.

Spirit often brings me symbols and messages in dreams and visions before I have healing sessions with clients. The eve before this session, I had fallen into sleep with a vision of Mt. St. Helens.  I felt my soul leave my body on the wings of Spirit, as I soured over the exposed womb of a blood-red mountain. I was seeing the energy of the volcanic mountain not with the eye, but with the soul.

There were messages from the goddess of the mountain, some of which I can still recall, others have imprinted their emotional memory upon my cells. It was the energy that mattered. That womb, open and exposed and still working to heal. Gaia’s red energy activated through her green heart. A larger, much more intense, representation of the hummingbird and the bee balm I would see days later.

Sometimes, when our creative fires are dormant for too long, when we allow them to build against the walls of a womb without allowing them the freedom to explore the channels of our mind/body/soul, we face the threat of eruption. This happens to Gaia, this happens to humans, as we are all one. We share compression, we share release. When I flew over the volcano, I saw a sacrifice. I saw a gift. I felt the energy of Gaia open and exposed, so that we could learn and receive.

A wise, intuitive friend of mine pointed me to the Gaia Stone after telling her about my dream. It is a brilliant green gem forged from the ashes of St. Helen’s. A heart-stone created from fire. It’s frequency works to heal the emotional heart inside of us, to find the balance lost.

I have found that all fears find a place in the heart. When one is lucky enough to live in the pure state of joy, like the hummingbird, there is no need for violent eruptions of energy, there is only the soft energy of a heart filled with joy. Can we get there together? Can we heal our hearts, and in doing so, heal the wounded heart of the Earth?

Why we stop

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections4 Comments

stop sign

I’m having one of those quiet days that come to me when my children and husband are back in school and work after a vacation. The house is quiet, aside from the occasional sigh and bark from the dogs, the whirr of the pellet stove, and the click of the keys on my computer. There is the scratch at the porch door that gets me up and moving to let in the smaller of my two dogs, and the ensuing smile that reminds me that love is about patience and the willingness to shift.

Today I am pondering the pause, the quiet space in our perception of time when stillness takes over the kinetic moments of life. Transitioning from one extreme to another can be uncomfortable, it’s a bit of a shock to the system of self. We can find ourselves a little lost in the place of quiet space where we wait for the next event to occur.

I love solitude, sometimes I crave it to the point of irritation. I need it, we all do, and yet I also crave the yell of bliss that ignites the spirit, forgetting that I can have both. I dwell on the wait, wondering when the next body of words will form to create a poem or a chapter, when someone will call for a healing session, or Spirit will bring me another gift of journey. I get caught up in the wait, forgetting that it is the very gift I need most.

Canada goose on pond

We feel the pulse of our divine light when we succumb to the deep breaths of silence. Here we remember who we are and where we come from. We recharge and realign so that we will be ready to move again.

The Kiss of the Butterfly

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Gaia & Elementals, Reflections9 Comments

A Butterfly from Another Day
A Butterfly from Another Day

Each year, on the first unseasonably warm day, I await the woodland butterfly. Today is a a particularly auspicious day. Not only is it the first day this spring that feels almost like summer, it’s 4-14-14 and the eve of the first lunar eclipse of the year, the Blood Moon. The air is charged with energy. The fog that held the morning in close embrace has lifted and the wind has taken reign of the air, howling it through the leafless trees and tugging at the clouds that keep threatening to block the sun. Oh, I do hope it wins its battle so we may view the Blood Moon tonight!

I am decidedly ungrounded today. There’s little to be done about it really. On days like this, I give into the forces. I love the feeling of magic, so I can’t say I was surprised, but rather delighted, when I saw my first butterfly of the year. The same species, the color of turned earth, that visits me each year on the first gloriously warm day.

It started as a passing thought, “I wonder if I’ll see a butterfly today,” as I made my way with the dogs into the forest. Then there was the man stumbling through the trees looking for a neighbor’s stolen bird feeder, bringing me back to the present. I knew the culprit before I asked. Bear. I told him I’d keep my eyes open for it, and ventured along the path with eyes alert.

The dogs and I didn’t walk far, just past the open field, slightly down the trail marked “Journey,” stopping at the vernal pond alive with the chorus of mating frogs. Daisy, my wise dog/teacher, stopped as she always does when she wants me to pay attention to Nature. Really, she didn’t need to today, as I was quite taken by the song of rebirth filling the air.

We never found the missing bird feeder, but about 50 feet before the entrance/exit to the forest, we met the butterfly. “There you are!” I exclaimed with delight, as she lifted wings to the air and danced a pirouette around my head. I became her Earth-bound companion, my heart souring with her, following her dazzling choreography in a the energy of pure bliss. This, to me, is what magic is all about.

The danced lasted mere minutes, perhaps five. I must confess, there were a few futile attempts to photograph my muse, but that clearly was not a purpose of this visit. Instead, I took with me the energy of her kisses. Three times, before she flew into another realm, she alighted on the top of my head, and I felt, ever so briefly, the flutter of her energy. I left the forest with eyes moist and heart lifted in gratitude.

Until we meet again.

The Butterfly in the Heart #heartchakra #healing #unconditionallove #butterflysymbolism

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Energy Healing5 Comments

butterflyinheart

All of our healing comes back to the heart. The heart chakra is the seat of our soul, and our connection to the divine energies of the universe. When we have a healthy heart chakra, we radiate pure, unconditional love and open ourselves to the return of this love.

When we experience pain, betrayal, and fear, especially during our formative years when we are most vulnerable, we can learn to protect ourselves by closing off the heart chakra. When we are given love with conditions, or suffer abuse, we adopt the belief that we are unworthy of unconditional love, and that this pure, untethered love is obtainable. Instead, we look at love as something with limits, and build walls of protection around our own inner source of love so that we do not run out of its light.

This system of belief is not always easy to change. It takes security, trust, and faith. When we begin to live with a healthy, open heart chakra, we erase the fear of vulnerability and not being loved by another. We understand, with faith, that the energy we send out to the universe comes back to us in multiplied form. When we realize that we are worthy of unconditional love, we begin to see that love is limitless. From this place of heart-centered pure love, we attract the energy of joy, abundance, compassion and the gift of unconditional love from others. We become magnets for these energies, and are no longer an energetic match for fear, conditional love, and betrayal. This translates to the people we attract to us.

I associate the energy of the butterfly with the heart chakra. Often, during healing sessions, I will see butterflies emerging from the heart chakras of my clients as they shift into self-acceptance and let go of their conditioned fears. The energy of the butterfly is pure joy and freedom. It is beauty without limits. The butterfly teaches us that we have within us the power to transform ourselves, to shed the weight of density, and to grow our wings.

Making the best out of Life

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections7 Comments

Bloom even when there are thorns at your back.
Bloom even when there are thorns at your back.

My dog Rosy likes to dig. I’ve taken many picture of her digging up our back yard, and have adopted the policy that her digging will someday unearth buried treasure. I also tell myself that she’s prepping the earth for a patio. Sometimes we just have to look for the positive aspects of life in order to make the best out of a situation that we can’t really, or don’t wish to, control.

The other day, Rosy was digging, as usual, in the backyard, spewing the rich, thawed loam of the earth with abandoned joy. Her older sister, Daisy, was also outside, resting, and I realized what a marvelous partnership they had developed.

"I dig the holes"
“I dig the holes”

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“…and she fills them.”

Look for the light of joy inside your days, even when you feel thorns pressing on your back. Beauty is always waiting to be seen.

A cluster of spring beauty
A cluster of spring beauty

Community

On By Alethea KehasIn ReflectionsLeave a comment

This is the word, or concept, that keeps appearing to me when I think of the shift of human consciousness that we are experiencing. The word community has two basic meanings. It can define a group of people living in one geographic area together, or it can represent a population that shares the same values. I think the true definition melds the two.

With our myriad of technological devices and options for connecting to others that seem to negate geographical distance, no longer is there such a need to physically exist in a shared space. Space, in a sense, collapses when we open up our Facebook walls, connect to our loved ones through FaceTime, or send a text message on our cell phones. With the push of a button we are instantly brought together. Or are we?

Although I have found these methods of connection limiting, I have slowly come to embrace them. There are moments when I sit alone on the couch sending out my words, or reading the messages of others; when I feel the lonely pull to physically be with the people I am connecting with through the internet. No amount of blogging or FaceTime can replace the energy of a group of people sharing a space, especially when that space is filled with their collective joy.

So, while I cherish the ability to easily connect to friends and family who are not living nearby, as well as the opportunities I have found to form bonds with individuals I have yet to met in person, I can’t ignore the void created by distance.

I am sure I am not alone in my sentiments. What does this mean for our evolution? How will we successfully collapse time and space to share in this new era. I think some of us are discovering that it is not enough to seek community through the airwaves.

Travel has become easier and more efficient, enabling us to move to places where we can find shared values and beliefs. I have a good friend who, through circumstances beyond her control, moved and found that she and her family landed in a community that was wonderfully suited for them. So much so that it seemed predestined.

I, myself, often feel the overwhelming tug to hurry time and finish the space I am building inside my home, which will allow me to more easily host gatherings of people who seek a community of shared truths. We are not, after all, a solitary species. Humans, by nature, thrive and multiply through shared love.

Yet, I think, sometimes we forget this. Just as a child will suffer the physical and emotional symptoms of neglect in an orphanage, so does the individual who shuts herself off from interacting with others, or chooses to interact with people out of shared pain rather than love.

When we seek community, or choose not to, it behooves us to examine why. Jealousy and a strong competitive drive can cause us to be drawn to others who appear to have less, or in some way make us feel superior, therefore feeding our fears of not being good enough. Sometimes we are so consumed with our own toxic love affair with pain that we can’t help but shut others out.

If you don’t know if you are attracting the right community, ask yourself these simple questions: Do my “friends” or family bring me happiness? Do they lift me to joy? There is, after all, nothing that matches the collective vibration of love.

The Gift of Wait

On By Alethea KehasIn ReflectionsLeave a comment

in wait
In Silence Find Your Truth

I find myself inside wait, yet I am not unhappy. Between the sprints of life there is that chance to breath before we run through the next event. During the periods of waiting, we can open ourselves to receive the gifts of silence.  If we go deep enough into that silence, reaching what Deepak Chopra calls “TheGap,” we find our answers. We find peace. We find love.

When the Universe gifts us with these moments of pause, it is not perhaps our duty, as much as our best-interest to receive. Instead of looking for something to fill the empty space, we can step inside of it. Alone, inside that stillness, we find connection.

Close your eyes (or leave them open, unfocused), quiet your body and empty your mind. Let your breath lead you to that place of solitude and open the door. When you reach “The Gap,”  you will discover that, in reality, you are not alone. Your cells hum with the song of the universe; you are not wholly of yourself, but a part of everything. This is your oppertunity to reprogram and realign with your truths.

Inside silence we hear the answers to our questions, for there is nothing to muffle the voice of our higher selves. In wait, find what you seek.

“When you feel a peaceful joy, that’s when you are near truth.” 
–Rumi

Stepping into Joy

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Memoir, ReflectionsLeave a comment

I love Denise Linn and her wisdom. Today these words of hers appeared on my FB wall, “When you step into your joy, you’ll recognize the need to release people that consistently make you feel anything less. Be your own fierce protector.”

The more light we let in, the less room there is for pain. Pockets of dense matter suddenly start breaking away. But, it is not always an easy process. In my last blogs I have  spoken of my struggle to heed the urgings of my guides and their messages that have often come through so strongly in my dreams and meditations. Recognizing that I have immersed myself and my family in an environment that I had tried to believe was premised on love and community, but was really dominated by the undertones of fear, has been difficult, at best.

These last few weeks I have struggled to break free. I have felt anger, sadness, guilt and remorse. I have felt alone, as the resistance extends to my family. But I have also felt the undertones of freedom and my own personal power. I know that sometimes relationships are meant to end, having served out their purposes, it is time to move on. Yet, sometimes we need to be “fierce” in our approach to break free from an environment that we now recognize as abusive. The other people involved will not see themselves in the same way we now perceive them, as they are still living in that place trapped by pain. They will often try to keep your ties firmly knotted, so that you remain in a place of less light. It makes them feel better. It makes their pain bodies feel powerful.

I also know that I have benefitted from these circumstances. Each is a lesson; a chance to grow and move to a place of more light and healing. More light seeps into the pockets of pain, breaking away the dense energy that has been trapped. I am reminded that when we are called to move beyond a place of pain, all parties benefit, even if it is not recognized. The worst thing we can do is to stay in an effort to protect the egos of others. We must have the courage to see beyond to the soul, realizing that when we act from the seat of our heart, we can only help the souls of others.